The usable living area in mobile living quarters, such as recreational vehicles, is severely limited by practical physical constraints for safe navigation of a roadway. Accordingly, it has become common in the industry to provide a slide-out room that can be moved between an extended position and a retracted position, thereby providing a convenient means of gaining additional auxiliary usable living space while the vehicle is stationary. In the extended position, the slide-out room protrudes out from the main living area of such mobile living quarters. In the retracted position, the slide-out room is positioned within the main living area of the vehicle so that the vehicle may be safely operated on a roadway.
For such a slide-out room, it is desirable for the floor of the room to be substantially flush and parallel to the floor of the main living area when extended in order to maximize the comfort and safety of any occupants. It is also desirable to have an actuating mechanism for moving the room between the retracted and extended positions that is contained entirely within the boundaries of the mobile living quarters in order to protect the actuating mechanism from the weather and other harsh environmental conditions that may hinder the operation and endurance of the mechanism. Slide-out rooms already known in the art, such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,620,224 and 5,787,650, often have a combined support and actuating mechanism including extendable cantilever supports that are at least partially exterior to the living area and exposed to the weather and other environmental factors. Furthermore, although a suspended slide-out room is known, it was heretofore unknown how to provide such a room that easily seats flush with the main floor when extended by an actuating mechanism located entirely within the interior of the living area.
Another problem encountered with a slide out room is that the power cord that extends from the main living area structure to power a motor to drive the actuating mechanism for shifting the slide-out room is susceptible to bunching and binding between the slide-out room and main living area structure when the slide-out room is shifted from its extended position to its retracted position. It would be desirable, therefore, to have a mechanism that would prevent bunching and binding of the cord.